The present invention relates to a method for separating two or more components in a liquid specimen by utilizing difference of adsorption to an adsorbent, and also to an apparatus used in said method.
As a method for separating two or more components in a liquid specimen by utilizing difference of adsorption to an adsorbent, a method using column chromatography is generally known.
In general, to introduce a specimen into a column for a column chromatography, the specimen is applied on a column carrier either directly or by means of a specimen injector. The specimen is usually introduced at a site upstream with respect to eluting direction of the specimen.
In the method as described above, as the specimen is introduced from a site upstream of the column, when a column is repeatedly used for separating and/or analyzing many liquid specimens containing insoluble substances not passable through the column such as a serum, the column may be clogged with trace quantity of insoluble substances in the specimen. As a result, pressure in the column may be increased or separation cannot be carried out effectively, and this often leads to problems such as shortening of life of the column. For this reason, pre-treatment such as filtration is generally performed prior to the introduction of the specimen, and components of the specimen are separated after removing insoluble substances. This results in more complicated procedure and reduces working efficiency.
Moreover, in a case where a specimen injector is used, trace quantity of the specimen may remain in the injector and this may cause carryover, which leads to contamination of the specimen to be analyzed. For this reason, after introducing the specimen, it is necessary to wash specimen introducing passage repeatedly using large quantity of washing solution.